LSAT Exemptions Bite the Dust

So, that whole thing about not having to take the LSAT to get into law school didn’t work out.

Just one year into the “LSAT exemption” pilot program that allowed certain schools to admit qualified students without the LSAT (up to 10% of each entering class), the American Bar Association (ABA) is pulling the plug.

To be fair, the reasons that LSAT exemptions didn’t work out appear to be purely administrative. The ABA didn’t change its collective mind because students who didn’t take the LSAT didn’t perform well in law school–the program wasn’t in effect long enough for anyone to know.

Rather, the ABA found it too difficult to keep up with inquiries; apparently, there were simply too many parameters in play for the group to manage, with the committee meeting only four times per year.

Schools involved in the pilot and those which had hoped for an expansion that would include their institutions alike expressed dissatisfaction that the ABA pulled the plug before any data was available to assess the accuracy of the alternate predictors employed. But, for the foreseeable future, if you want to go to law school, you’re you’re to have to take the LSAT.